June 2010

Still from Bas Jan Ader's Fall I, 1970

Bas Jan Ader

"I visit this site for its visual intensity
and poetic beauty (and every time I need to see a man cry). I have
never seen a website like this; one that immediately catapults me
out of time. Many aspects of artist Bas Jan Ader touch me: the fact
that he followed his path without exactly knowing where it would
lead to, searching for his own language of expression, simplicity
of means, romantic obscurity (mysticism?), no compromises. No
distinction (differentation?) between life and art. It has a
religious quality. One day he just disappeared. That's an idea that
I can very much relate to."

Daxo

"I visit this site everytime I want to be
confused. From time to time I try to figure out how the Daxophon
works. Hans Reichel, the inventor of the incredible Daxophon
instrument (and creator of this site), is also a typographer. I
feel attracted to personalities who are able to translate the
language/expression of one discipline to a completely different
field. Reichel's instruments not only sound completely outlandish
but their wooden tongues also look like letters."

Ultra Eczema

"I visit ultraeczema.com everytime I have a
lack of dirt on my retina for its great and silly drawings and
great and silly sounds. Dennis Tyfus who runs the label is a friend
of mine. I love his drawings (he made a great cover for the
Pete Um release on Gagarin Records). He's a good curator
and one of the few big mouths who really go for the idea of
experimental music. I wish there'd be more of his kind out
there."

L'étranger

"Everytime I want to discover new music
(combinations) and films I visit L'étranger. It's a great radio
programme from Brussles with a combination of art, music and punk
mentality. The host, Kosten Koper a.k.a. de Zeehond was the
ideologist of the Scottish Heathen label DISKONO. He's got a
brilliant knowledge about (non-institutional) art and is a good
writer. A while ago he made a documentary film about art
collectives in Belgium that I liked a lot. There is always an
aggressive undertone in his works. One of the intellectuals who
hates intellectuals and thus: himself. Don't we love that?"

Berliner Bart-Club

"When I made my radio play Wiederhole 1-8
(Repeat 1-8) about instruction manuals for WDR in 2008, I
wanted to include descriptions about how to create special beards
and how to take care of them. This website helped a lot. I met the
chairman of the "Berliner Bartclub" who wears a "royal mutton
chops, freestyle".